Raven
by lpk97
Summary: Mia hasn't always had life easy. In fact, her life has been a living hell. Growing up as the daughter of two druggies on an estate thriving with gang crime, is just the start of it. But that hasn't stopped her. She's head strong, ballsy and won't take no off anyone. But is she too much for CHERUB to handle?
1. Raven

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own any rights to CHERUB.**

**Please please review! This is my second fan fict, both are CHERUB based. I would love to know what you think and I'm open to constructive criticism. I also welcome any plot ideas. Let me know if you want an update and I'll get working on another chapter straight away.**

2012. October 2nd. Tuesday evening. 9 o'clock. The night my life was turned upside down and inside out. Everything I had ever known was about to change. The line between reality and dreams shifted. The impossible became possible...

Glancing up I saw the clouds shrouding the sky with an eerie, ominous blanket. I cradled my arms round myself, in a poor attempt to fend off the bitter wind. Rain plastered down my face, smudging my heavy eye makeup. My long black hair was soaked to a state that it looked like a wet mop.

I needed get home: my dad hadn't been coping well. He'd been clean for two and a half months but today was the anniversary of my mum's death and I'd been anxious that it might push him back to the drugs. I started to run down the street, my sodden dolly pumps squelching with every step.

Having lived on the estate for my whole life, I knew all the short cuts and back routes. The only problem was that at night, they definitely weren't a place I wanted to be. I shoved all fear out of my mind and told myself not to be a wimp.

As I rounded the corner of the alley leading to my house, I saw a gang of rough boys. They all had dark hoodies concealing their faces, but I knew exactly who they were. They were the local thugs and drug dealers; they used to sell to my dad. They liked to think they're hard men and act like they rule the estate. The oldest of the gang is Danny; he's nineteen and the so called 'alpha'.

I kept my head down, hoping they wouldn't notice me as I tried to quickly slip by. Unfortunately, Danny clocked me.

The sleaze bag winked and said cockily "Alright Mia, babe." I nodded and strode past, hoping that he would be content with my response. But Danny's beefy hand grabbed my arm, forcefully dragging me back.

"Don't go. Us lads need a pretty girl around." Danny said as he positioned his arm around my shoulders. The position appeared friendly but I felt threatened being trapped under his domineering arm. His hand was draping over my shoulder and I could feel his fingers resting purposefully on my chest.

"I've got to be home soon, so I'd better go." I said, managing to unravel Danny's arm from around me.

"You're not going anywhere." Danny smirked "Your dad owes us, didn't pay up for his smack."

"You sold to him?" I accused, furiously jabbing my finger into his chest. "You know he's trying to quit!"

Danny reached out and slapped me hard around the face "Watch your mouth, you disrespectful little girl." I clutched my burning cheek, glaring with hatred at Danny and his gang.

"How about we settle her daddy's debt right now?" A slime ball from the group offered.

"I like your thinking." Danny agreed with a suggestive smile. I knew what they were implying and I did not like the way the situation was heading. I had to escape. One against four was not favourable odds but at least I had the element of surprise. I waited until Danny came in close, smothering my lips with his salivary mouth and yanking at the buttons of my school blouse. I could feel another boy grabbing at my skirt, trying to rip it off.

Suddenly in an explosion of movement, I thrust my knee up into Danny's balls. He crumpled over in pain. I swung round and knocked out the skirt grabber with a powerful punch to temple. A gang member wrenched my hair, dragging me backwards. Instinctively, I drove my elbow back, plunging into his nose which erupted with oozing blood. With three of the four men down, I took my chance to run.

I glanced over my shoulder and saw Danny had recovered and was leading the chase. I raced down the alley and hurdled over the gate to my house. I had managed to increase the ground between us but as I fumbled with the keys to open my door, Danny had caught up and yanked me back.

"Well well well." He taunted, dangling me in the air by the collar of my blouse. "What shall we do with you now?"

"Look Danny, I'm sorry alright?" I resulted to grovelling as my last resort. "I'll do anything you want."

"After the little stunt you pulled back there, you'd better invite us in." He replied.

Without bothering to await a response, the gang threw open my front door and pilled in. I was still trapped by Danny restraining me. He shoved me through the door and sent me spiralling on to the living room floor. By the time I had composed myself to sit up, I knew there was something wrong.

Danny's face was ashen as he stammered "We need to get out of here now boys."

Time seemed to freeze as I witnessed the horror in front of me. My dad's body was slumped lifeless on the sofa; his skin was ghastly grey; needle hanging from his arm. I rushed to his side and frantically tried to search for a pulse: for some sign of life. With my attempts failing, I snatched the phone from the table and dialled 999.

Every second dragged as I waited for the ambulance. The woman who directed my call stayed on the line to me. She kept patronisingly repeating how brave I was being. All I could think was that my dad was dead. The last of my family gone. I was homeless, orphaned and alone.


	2. Orphan

When the paramedics came charging in, I was crumpled in the corner sobbing hysterically. They tried to shield me from watching as my father was covered with a black sheet and carried away. The exact same way my mother was seven years ago. She died when I was four, from an over dose just like my dad. I don't remember much about my mum. I've seen pictures of her, she was beautiful: silky black hair and wide doe eyes that were a piercing blue. My dad always said how much I look like her.

I know my parents were druggies. They put getting their next fix over everything, even me at times. But at least I had people that cared about me. Now all I've got is the tired looking social worker who was dragged out of bed to come and cart me off to a care home. She tried to talk to me at first but gave up when I didn't reply. I just didn't feel like talking. It was nothing personal. Instead I spent the journey gazing out of the car window, watching my life, as I knew it, fade into the distance.

When the car reached a stop, a care worker came bounding out of the house with an annoyingly happy expression on her face. She was wearing a mash up of brightly coloured clothes which made her look like she'd been in a paint explosion.

"Hello I'm Jenny." She beamed "You must be Mia. Welcome to your new home."

"Hi." I replied with a half hearted attempt to match her enthusiasm.

"I'm so sorry about what happened to your dad. How are you?" She asked, looking genuinely concerned.

I shrugged and tried to change the subject in fear that I might break down into tears. "I'm tired. Is there a place I can just crash for a few hours?"

"Of course, sweetie. Just follow me." She ushered me into the rundown house. "We're a bit overcrowded so you'll be sharing a room." Jenny led me down a corridor then knocked on the fourth door along.

"Come in." droned a sleepy voice.

I followed Jenny into a box room with two single beds. There was a girl in one of them, who Jenny introduced as Bec. Bec was a petite girl, who looked a similar age to mine, and had crazy, frizzy, ginger hair.

"I'll leave you girls alone to get acquainted." Jenny smiled as she declared her exit.

"Hey I'm Mia." I said "So is this place as bad as it looks?"

"Pretty much." Bec confirmed "It's a complete dump but you'll get used to it."

"Oh great." I replied sarcastically.

I chatted to Bec for another hour. I was happy for some company to take my mind off what had happened. I found out that she was twelve years old, one year older than me but she was in the same school year as me. She was pleased that we were both going to be attending the same local high school. However I didn't tell her that I usually ditch school: I hate the teachers thinking they have authority over me and I find the lessons patronisingly easy anyway.

When Bec and I had covered all of the basics of getting to know each other, we called it a night and climbed into our beds. I had expected that I wouldn't be able to sleep, but I felt emotionally drained and drifted off instantly.

I woke the next morning and practically jumped out of the bed with fright. A group of about five kids were crowded round my bed, staring at me like an animal in a zoo.

"What the hell are you doing?" I demanded.

"Oops! Sorry" A young voice giggled "We didn't mean to wake you."

I turned to Bec, who explained "They're all bloody nosey parkers and barged in wanting to know who the new kid was."

"Right well show's over kids." I shouted, making them scurry out of the door.

Bec lead me down to the dining room where a bunch of kids in uniform were fighting over a box of coco pops.

"We'll let them battle it out over the cereal. I'm making some toast, you want some." Bec offered.

"Yeah." I replied "Cheers."

As Bec went to the kitchen, Jenny spotted me and bounded over happily "We've arranged for someone to pack up your stuff so that you can go to school today."

"Oh great." I responded, but my sarcasm was wasted on her.

"We've enrolled you in the local school so you'll need to grab some spare uniform from the cupboard." Jenny said before running off to break up an escalating fight over the milk.

When Bec returned, we ate breakfast while she gave me the lowdown on all of the care home gossip. She was bubbling with excitement as she nattered on about how she thinks that Jenny fancies the care taker. But my attention was jolted towards the corner of the room where a group of boys in dark tracksuits were stood. Instantly, I was reminded of Danny. Although my dad shouldn't have taken the drugs, I blamed Danny for his death.

"I'll be back in a sec." I interrupted Bec mid sentence and she looked offended, but I had more important things to deal with.

I raced to Jenny, demanding "Did the cops get Danny?"

"What?" Jenny asked, confused.

"Danny, the guy that sold to my dad" I explained impatiently "have the police arrested him?"

"No they couldn't find him, sweetie." Jenny replied "And they had very little evidence anyway."

"I bet they didn't even bother looking for him!" I screamed in anger. "Bloody incompetent pigs." I was struggling to control my overpowering rage but managed to charge out of the room before I started a fight or smashed something.

Bec came chasing after me, trying to calm me down "Mia, come on." She pleaded "It's not even been a day there's still time for the police to catch him."

"I know, but they're useless." I replied "I bet I could do a better job!"

Bec tactfully changed the subject "We've got school soon, so we'd better see if we can find you some uniform that doesn't stink or have holes in."

After wading through a cupboard of used uniform, I eventually managed to scavenge a relatively new skirt, a faded but clean shirt and a jumper with only a few holes. Once I had adjusted it so that my skirt was rolled up and my shirt buttoned low with my tie hanging loose, I actually looked quite good.

"Wow." Bec commented with a look of astonishment "How have you actually managed to pull off those bunch of rags."

"Trust me, if I had a choice, I wouldn't be seen dead in this uniform." I replied.

"Well, you're going to have all of the boys checking you out." Bec said excitedly "I've already heard some of the guys talking about how fit you are."

I couldn't help but laugh even though it wasn't exactly unusual for me; I've always got a lot of male attention. But to be honest, it was more of a hindrance because all of the boys that had hit on me turned out to be dicks.

Rosefield High School turned out to be another complete dump. No surprise there. It was infested with chavs, thugs, and bullies. Even the teachers were complete morons.

Bec and I had maths together first period. The teacher had drawn up a seating plan; I was sat next to an average looking boy who appeared friendly. Within the first five minutes, I had counted multiple mistakes that our teacher made and so I instantly lost any respect for him. I turned to the boy next to me and started to chat.

"Why do I hear talking" The teacher asked, staring over at me.

"Maybe it's because you have ears." I answered back cockily.

"Are you being smart with me?" He demanded.

"Yes" I replied instantly "Would you rather me dumb with you instead?"

"Well, no." He said flatly before adding "But let's see how smart you are, come up to the board and solve this." The old man scrambled through his textbook, looking for a difficult question so that he could embarrass me in front of the class.

He wrote a quadratic function on the board, and said smugly "Come up and solve this for its roots."

I didn't budge from my seat but after a few seconds replied "That's a trick question, there are no real roots." The teacher stood in stunned silence.

"The minimum point is (2,1) which is above the x axis." I started to explain.

"Yes, yes that's correct." He confirmed, finding the answer in the back of his textbook. He looked slightly disgruntled that his plan to make me look a fool had backfired and shouted "Get back to work everyone."

After first period, Bec told me that it would be easier if I just kept my head down, and I tried my best to do that. However, there was only so much that I could take...

"Hey guys, here come the little orphans!" A slutty girl with peroxide blonde hair sneered to her friends as Bec and I walked past. "Looking at that ginger, no wonder her parents didn't want her." Bec's face dropped as she realised the insult was directed at her, and the group of girls chorused in laughter.

Without thinking, I retorted "Just because you're blonde, doesn't mean you have to act like an idiot."

The girl stood gobsmacked before vainly shooting back "You're just jealous because I'm prettier."

"You're pretty..." I said, pausing for effect "...fucking ugly."

The girl desperately tried to think of a witty comeback, but when that failed she resorted to yelling "I'm going to smash your face in!"

A crowd had gathered round and started to egg her on, shouting "Get her, Tara!" Whilst others began to chant "Fight! Fight! Fight!" I'd had my fair share of fights in the past, and knew I wouldn't get away without a bit of a scuffle, so I decided that I might as well put on a show and entertain the crowd.

"Come on Tara." I provoked "Give us your best hit."

Tara swung at my face with her full force. I dodged easily, and while she was off balance from swinging at me, I hooked my foot threw her legs and swiped her to the ground. Tara fell ungracefully on her bum. The audience loved it and many were laughing at her expense.

Tara scrambled to her feet and threatened cockily "You're going to get it for that!"

This time, Tara was fighting dirty. She yanked hold of my hair and started trying to batter me with her other hand. But her punches were weak and I blocked them with ease, before powerfully shoving her backwards. She was sent spiralling to the ground again, much to the crowd's amusement.

Luckily for her, by this time the teachers had heard about the fight and came charging over to break it up. I couldn't be bothered dealing with a pointless lecture, that I'd heard a thousand times before, so I decided to make a run for it. I sprinted down the corridor, out of reception and then out of the gates. I heard heavy footsteps behind me, and glanced round to see that Bec had followed me.

"Mia, come back!" She begged.

"I hate school, there's no point." I shouted "There's something I've got to do anyway." Before waiting for Bec's response, I ran off down the road leaving her stood gingerly at the school gates.

I hadn't been lying when I told Bec that there was something I had to do. I'd been milling the idea over and over in my head since this morning. I'd come to the conclusion that if the police weren't going to do anything about Danny, then I would.


	3. Revenge

Once I'd left school, I got the bus over to my old estate. I popped into the local hardware store to get supplies. I wasn't entirely sure what I needed as I wasn't even sure how far I was going to go with my plan. But I knew it was better to be prepared in case.

One way that Danny's drug dealing worked was through text message. Only people within his circle had the number he used. Over the years of my dad buying from Danny, I had found out that number. I pulled my phone out from my pocket and sent a text to Danny saying 'I need a fix. R U selling?'

I wasn't sure if Danny would be suspicious that he'd never had an order from my number before. However he obviously wasn't clever enough to think into it too much and replied 'yea meet at chase street alley'

I was starting to doubt if I would be able to pull my plan off. I was counting on Danny being alone because the other gang members are younger and are still in school. But my nerves were pushed aside as my adrenaline started pumping.

When I arrived at the alley, Danny wasn't there yet. I positioned myself so that I could see when he was approaching but he wouldn't be able to see me. As Danny turned the corner, oblivious to me being there, I swung my fist powerfully. There was a crunch as my hand made contact with his jaw. Danny was quick to react but I landed a counter cross followed by a hook and he crumpled to the ground.

"Mia, why the hell are you back?" Danny asked as he spluttered blood.

"Because scum like you are still around." I spat at him as I turned to grab my bag.

"Ruby watch out!" I heard Bec's voice shout from a distance. I quickly realised that she must have followed me.

Thanks to Bec's warning, I noticed that Danny had pulled out a knife with a three inch blade. He thrust towards me, trying to slash my stomach. I dodged just in time. Before he had a chance to come at me again, I grabbed his wrist and twisted it sharply causing his arm to go into spasm and he dropped the knife. By this time, Bec had reached me and kicked the knife out of his reaching distance.

"What the hell are you doing, Ruby?" Bec screamed.

"Revenge." I replied bluntly as I slammed my fist into Danny's stomach, making him crumple over in agony. Beating Danny up didn't feel anything near as good as I'd expected. The cuts and bruises would fade in a few days and he'd be free to live his life. No. I had a better idea.

"Pass me my bag." I instructed Bec "I need to get something."

"Why, what are you going to do?" She replied with a voice of confusion, and nervousness for my answer.

"Think of it like this." I explained "If the police can't be bothered to look for him, then I'm going to hand them him on a plate."

Once Bec had handed me my bag, I yanked out the cord of rope that I'd bought earlier. I used it bind Danny's hands together at one end. Then I dragged him over to a signpost at the end of the alley and knotted the other end around the pole.

"Don't do this Mia!" Danny begged "You know I'll get sent down."

"Oh I'm counting on it." I said smugly. I wrapped a second piece of rode around his feet and the pole and secured it with a double knot.

"What next?" Bec asked.

I whipped my phone out of my bag and dialled for the police "Danny Rogers, the dealer responsible for the overdose of the man that died last night, is at the end of the alley on Chase Street." I reported before adding "and he has a knife and drugs on him." A few minutes later, I heard sirens approaching.

"We'd better get out of here before the cops arrive and arrest you for assault." Bec suggested.

I nodded before turning to face Danny for the last time "I hope you rot in a police cell for the rest of your life."

"You fucking bitch!" Danny shouted angrily, struggling against the restraints. I saw a police car approaching, so Bec and I raced off before we got caught.

After a couple of minutes, we agreed that it was safe to stop running and walked the rest of the distance to the bus stop. Neither of us knew what to say after that crazy scene and an awkward silence hung in the air.

"Mia, what on earth were you playing at?" Bec finally exclaimed "You could've got yourself killed."

"Oh yea cheers for the warning back there." I smiled "But I know how to handle myself."

"You're nuts, you know that?" Bec began to laugh.

"Better than being boring." I joked back.

When we arrived back at the care home, Jenny was waiting in the entrance and said sternly "Girls in need you in my office now."

"Shit, do you think we've been busted?" I whispered to Bec.

"I suppose we'd better find out." Bec replied, leading the way into Jenny's office.

As I walked in, I noticed another woman sat in the room. Jenny introduced her as Zara. She was wearing a smart, grey suit and had her hair tied back in a neat, no nonsense ponytail. I instantly assumed she worked for the police and was even more convinced when Jenny left the room, telling Zara that she'd leave her to it.

"Listen, Bec had nothing to do with it." I said, wanting to take all the blame so that Bec didn't get in trouble.

A smile passed over Zara's lips for a moment. "I know exactly what happened." She said "But that's not why I'm here."

I stood, confused. But in a split second, the confusion turned to alarm. Zara had pulled out a needle with a liquid drug inside. I had no idea why. All I knew was that needles and drugs were bad. They had killed both my parents.

"No!" I screamed "Get away from me." The woman took no notice of me and continued to advance towards me with the needle. I spun around and started to run towards the door. Bec slammed it shut in my face.

"What are you doing?" I screamed in exasperation. I felt the cold piece of metal prick my arm. Immediately, I swung round, knocking the needle from Zara's hand.

Bec grabbed me from behind and forced me to the floor. By this time, Zara had recovered the needle. Bec pinned me down while Zara mounted on top of me. I squirmed franticly, trying to escape, but they were too strong. The sharp needle head was plunged deep into my skin. My body turned limp. My arms weighed a tonne as I flailed them desperately. Then I slipped into darkness.


End file.
